The Weekend Newsletter (11.7)
Tarot on Medium and Substack . . .
Last week’s Double Daily co-opted the space I’d originally planned/promised to use for the topic “Tarot on Medium and Substack.” So I’ll tackle that today, rounding out the Daily Notes mini-series about online Tarot.
As far as Medium goes—the whole platform is falling apart, so there’s nothing much to say that’s specific to Tarot. My publication is still there if you want to visit, but I no longer add content. It’s an attractive page, though (if I do say so!), and shows what the possibilities might have been if Medium had improved instead of devolving.
There’s better news at Substack. As mentioned in previous EP stories, astrologers Frederick Woodruff and Jessica Adams have Substack newsletters. Both also write about Tarot. Woodruff has a paid level, but there is also some free content. Jessica Adams Astrology and Tarot is very new on Substack, and still free.
I knew about those two because both authors are also EP readers. And I knew from earlier contacts about a newsletter called Compound Eye Comparative Tarot. I’ve been subscribed to the free version, and found the author’s approach both engaging and provocative. The newsletter came out fairly frequently earlier this year, but slowed down in the summer, and the last free issue came out in August. Since then the only thing published was a paid issue on October 24—so I don’t really know what the author’s intentions are going forward. I’d urge EP readers to have a look at the archived stories, though.
Past those three, I had to go on a research mission. Happily, I found three more items worth reporting on.
3 a.m. Tarot: devils & fools is a Substack newsletter from Meg Jones Wall, who has an extensive online presence. Her approach to Tarot is focused on “self-exploration”—but it has qualities of complexity and authenticity that are often missing on the “lifestyle” side of contemporary Tarot. Additionally, Wall is a co-creator in this intriguing collaboration:
Also in the “self-” category, but also going deeper is Jessica Dore’s Substack newsletter Offerings. My snap judgment is interested (on the one hand), and uncomfortable (on the other). Interested: I appreciate Dore’s interdisciplinary approach, weaving together “psychology, philosophy, social work, spirituality, mythology and folk stories.” Uncomfortable: Dore uses “Pamela Colman Smith's art from the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot” exclusively as an anchor for her discussions.
Writer Caroline Cala Donofrio posts personal essays on Between a Rock and a Card Place, and ends each one with a Tarot-inspired reflection. Her newsletter is very new, but well worth a look—even though the author explicitly denies that Tarot has any dimensions beyond the personal.
My next newsletter (look for it on Tuesday!) will share some thoughts sparked by the search for other Tarot/Substack publications. In the meantime—thanks so much for reading this one.
Warmest regards, Cynthia